Charity

Cursing at the random speed bumps put up by the area residents on Salim Singh Street Shah was accosted by an old lady. “Hut ja buRRhiya,”* he yelled. Kids hanging around the corner ration shop repeated in chorus, "Hut ja buRRhiya."*

“Beta meri paanch jawaan betiyaan haiN,”** the old woman pleaded.

He searched his pockets and found a driving license, an American Express and a Habib Debit Card. “Do you have some money?” “No,” replied Nina who was wearing the diamond studded set she had ordered for the wedding.

Shah was a remorseless hit man working for the A-G conglomerate, Allahwala Group. He was on the motorway with his bejeweled cohabitant Nina, driving to a wedding.

At the reception Shah met Shazia, a peroxide blonde with streaks in her hair. She smiled at him.

On the way back, he exited the motorway, drove a few miles in the country, stopped, and yanked a dozing Nina out of the car. A single bullet to the head and she was dead. He removed her jewelry, putting them in his handkerchief, before dumping her body under nearby bushes.

Back into the city and the speed bumps, he recognised the ration shop, now closed. There were some kids still hanging around. He enquired about the old lady. One of them volunteered to lead him to her shack. He knocked at the rickety door. When the old lady answered he gave her the jewelry wrapped in the handkerchief and said, “Lay shadi keraday oonki.”***

Back at the bungalow he showered, then called his friend at the police station, “O yaar dakkoo’ouN nay Nina ko kidnap karliya.”****